Operation Dynamo

You probably know it as the Dunkirk evacuation.

Operation Dynamo, which took place between May 26 and June 4, 1940, saw some 338,000 troops rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk.  Those beaches actually stretched from Dunkirk in France to the Belgian beaches of De Panne. The point of this article is not to go in-depth on the historical facts but simply remembering and saluting the memory of those who experienced the horrors of being trapped on the beaches.

The British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) of World War 2 was sent to the French-Belgian border to counter the German army advance into Belgian and threatening France. However, the BEF incursion into Belgian was soon pushed back by the German army with the capitulation of the Belgian army.

Among the British troops was my late father serving with the South Lancs Regiment. Later in life, he gave me some glimpses of his experiences during that period. Arriving at the De Panne beach on the Belgian coast was where they disabled their vehicles so that they could not be used by the enemy (see above photo and many others from MailOnline 26 July 2017). Then it was the long wait on the open beaches for the rescue by the boats. During their vulnerable exposure on the beaches, my father told me that they were attacked by Stuka aircraft. These Stuka dive bombers would strafe and bomb the troops on the open beaches. He said that when a Stuka pulled-up out of their low dive he could see the rear gunner firing down at them. They were so close that he actually saw the face of the rear gunner gritting his teeth while firing. A desperate scene seeing colleagues and friends falling victim to the repeated attacks. The new movie about Dunkirk has captured some of this horror, view the clip on this link.

My father’s survival and eventual rescue did not go well. He said that they would wade out into the sea, climb unto a ship only to have to get back into the sea again after the ship was bombed. Eventually, he did get evacuated by a ship and returned safely to England. I remember that my mother still had my father’s wallet that he had carried during this phase of the war. The contents were still intact but stained by the salty sea water.

After the Dunkirk debacle, my father continued in the war effort and returned to Europe with D-Day landings and the liberation of France, Belgium, Holland and at the end of the war in Bonn during the occupation of  Germany by the Allies.

We owe this tough generation much for the return to freedom and the rebuilding of Europe. Without their determination and sacrifice, I would not be here nor free to write this article. It is difficult to imagine spending all your youth years from 1939 to 1945 at war. My father was a professional soldier and continued post-war service well into the Cold War years.

Dunkirk Movies

Dunkirk 1958 version starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough

Dunkirk 2017 version starring Fion Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance